5

Niyama—Self-Regulation

The practice of yama and niyama primarily attracts religious people, regardless of denomination—men and women who have glimpsed, in one way or another, the shadow of their divine nature. But the practice of these ethical rules actually applies to all those who, while aspiring to a healthy, joyful life, realize deep inside that they are already en route, seeking a reality that transcends everyday joys and worries, a timeless reality of truth and love.

While yama presents itself as a discipline of behavioral control through its “abstentions,” niyama concerns the spiritual development of the individual. Niyama covers five “observances” directed toward oneself; in other words, they regulate a practitioner’s personal conduct.

Śauca

Cleanliness is strongly related to purity, especially in the different disciplines of Yoga. Careful about the elimination of all external and internal body wastes, śauca constitutes an important rule in the practice of Haṭha Yoga. External cleanliness of the body is achieved with a hot or cold shower or bath, sweating, exposure to the sun or simply the air, and with massage or friction. Internal cleanliness in Haṭha Yoga is the subject of chapter 9, “Ṣaṭ Karman—Purifications.”

Santoṣa

Involving a quality of inner equilibrium, santoṣa reflects an attitude of contentment that superficially can give the impression of laziness or indeed self-satisfaction, which can be perceived as self-importance, arrogance, or disdain. However, the sought-after state of santoṣa is sometimes an extremely positive and dynamic feeling. It is synonymous with inner balance, peace, and imperturbability—not to be confused with passivity. It is an attitude that generates unconditional joy, which is a state of soul that is manifested independently of any external circumstance that the ego views as good news.

Tapas

In Yoga (unlike in the cognitive sciences), especially in the context of Haṭha Yoga, a good understanding of the aims and applications of tapas comes from practical experience. The Sanskrit term tapas has several meanings and is understood differently according to the practitioner. There being no truly equivalent term, tapas is generally translated by “asceticism,” a word whose Greek origin denotes exercise. However, the occasionally ambiguous use of the term in yogic doctrine should be noted, as it at times refers to exercise and at other times results. The present exposition does not pretend to go into depth about the origin of yogic asceticism or into its different applications over the centuries. It cannot be exhaustive in the viewpoints and experiences alluded to here.

For the yogi and yogini, tapas involves a discipline of austerity as much as purification. In the practice of Haṭha Yoga, this rule aims specifically at mental purification, the development of strength of thought, and endurance. Tapas is practiced at three different levels—gentle, medium, and intense. While the first level is relatively accessible to any serious student, the second and third require the guidance of a competent and experienced guru.

The first level may involve different exercises: activating the faculty of empathy, observing strict silence (mauna), enduring all kinds of tough weather conditions, experiencing intense heat and cold, and submitting stoically to hunger, thirst, and sleep deprivation. At this level, intense muscular training is proposed, particularly maintaining appropriate postures (āsanas) up to the limit of what is tolerable. In the practice of tapas, sexual continence can play a significant role, even if at first it is limited to simple control, which consists of abstaining from all sexual thoughts or comments that are out of context. This rule may be accompanied by cutting in half the frequency of sexual activity.*10

The path taken (of Yoga sādhana) can be favorable for the acquisition of siddhis, the superhuman powers to which knowledge and superior states of consciousness are intimately linked. But the siddhis a person can acquire on a spiritual journey are still only steps toward the realization of the Self. When the siddhis appear, generally at the end of a long quest, the tenacious illusion of the world is set aside, after the practitioner has conscientiously applied the sublime negation of neti neti (not this, not that) in each phase of development. Through numerous experiences, the mental world is enriched with new dimensions, notably that of a Reality that eludes the grasp of the mind and the senses. Thenceforth, the perception of the realities of the transitory world only reinforces the practitioners’ asceticism and clarifies heightened awareness of the pain and cosmic illusion that surrounds them.

At the end of their spiritual journey, yogis and yoginis are liberated from all the experiences and powers they have acquired during their present lifetime and at the end of numerous past reincarnations. Their liberation, which is for the sole benefit of the Ultimate Reality that is the final objective of all their births, will not exclude the fact of having to immolate what was most sacred to them in the world—the ultimate sacrifice of a spiritual hero—the personal divinity that followed them throughout their quest and to which they were organically attached. Such freedom will be emblematic of the final discharge of all the streams, tributaries, and rivers into the immensity of a vast ocean.

Tapas is emblematic of the spirit of sacrifice, an archetype that is found in many civilizations—a sacrifice that not only allows humans to communicate or commune with the occult forces of nature but also has allowed us to survive during our long evolution on our planet. Dating back to ancient times, the term tapas figures in hymn X.129 of the Ṛigveda, which in its metaphysical description of Creation refers to a heat (tapas) emanating from nothing and permitting the appearance of the primordial Being, unmanifested but latent, outside time and space. This term also appears in Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras (IV.1), in which he describes one of the paths leading to the acquisition of extraordinary powers (siddhis), along with four other considerations (birth, certain herbal beverages, mantras, and samādhi). The text lists about thirty such powers.

These superhuman powers are acquired by beings who live for the most part in great destitution and near absolute anonymity. In India they are considered as enduring heroes and, for a long time, have constituted the spiritual leaders of an elite asceticism. Their mental universe is located beyond the noisy world, the newsworthy events in society, far from the gaze of the ephemeral protagonists in political or social power, in sport or show business. Extreme practices rest on an unshakeable faith, anchored in a cultural environment that seems to defy the laws of time. Anonymous champions of determination and psychic force, this spiritual elite demonstrates an exceptional will and stamina. Their powers are often accompanied by universal compassion and immeasurable patience, which are the conditions for grace to descend and crown these unconditional lovers of God.

The most visible superhuman exploits are seen among the sādhus and the naga nagas or naga babas, whose principal feature is total nudity; they pour regularly out of the four corners of India, principally the Himalayas where they live as hermits or anchorites. They come down from their hermitages or lonely huts to the banks of the Ganges to participate in great traditional gatherings (melas), which in India take place every four years in rotation in four different towns: Nasik, Ujjain, Allahabad, and Hardwar. Received everywhere with reverence and devotion, those who possess siddhi powers enjoy great respect from their peers, from Indian civil and military dignitaries, as well as from the mass of pilgrims who sometimes number in the millions. This highly colorful crowd is united in contemplation and meditation and also in what it considers to be the privilege of darśana, the vision of these exemplary beings who bear a universal blessing. For this multitude, composed of ethnic groups with very different languages and coming from diverse social milieus and castes, the naga nagas become a living source of emulation, a model of the faith that moves mountains and orients the hearts of the believers toward Heaven.

Coming from a very ancient spiritual school, reputedly atypical because of its adepts’ heterodox behavior, these extreme ascetics have renounced all worldly goods. In the vast Indian continent, one is used to hearing: “If it doesn’t exist in India, it doesn’t exist anywhere.” It is therefore not a paradox to see men, for the most part entirely nude, move around freely, without risk of opprobrium for indecency, while Bharata (India), “the largest democracy in the world,” typically displays, even today, a Victorian sense of modesty and fear of promiscuity. Still, with the exception of a minority of Hindu purists who are strictly faithful to the precept according to which the yogi must never make a display of his spirituality, and who thus scarcely appreciate these public events, the naga naga elicit amazement and admiration. They are exceptional beings who are treated with respect mixed with fear because, according to popular legend, those who possess siddhis can be dangerous when angered.

It is equally possible to witness the demonstration of certain forms of siddhis in public places in India. These are “fallen” yogis who have decided deliberately to ignore the fact that it is attachment to extraordinary powers that precipitates their fall and that only the condition of nonattachment will allow them to attain the ultimate Reality. These Yoga renegades are victims in the grip of an extraordinary power, who have renounced the path of a challenging spiritual quest, preferring instead to attract crowds by virtue of their “magical” powers. From the strict point of view of the sādhana, the status of yogi is then replaced by that of fakir, an Arabic word meaning “poor person” (beggar).

Svādhyāya

Quite as important at the level of knowledge is the rule designated by the term svādhyāya, which recommends the study of sacred texts. If it is indispensable to acquire basic training in the practical study of any science, it is all the more desirable for every believer to study the foundations of his or her own religion. In the same way, the atheist, who does not deny the necessity of rules to manage life in society and who thus adheres to its values, will have everything to gain by knowing the rules that this same society imposes while granting freedom of thought.

Without study of sacred writings and, of course, putting them into practice, religion risks becoming the source of intolerance and, alas, bloody conflicts. Dogmatic practices can also result in the cult of superstition, robotic orthodoxy, and isolation of the individual in a cultural and social no-man’s-land. In the spirit of Haṭha Yoga, recommended study includes the sacred texts belonging to each person’s confession, whether it is the Gospels, the Qur’an, or the Torah, or Indian sacred scriptures. More than a source of strictly theological or philosophical knowledge, the study aimed at in the practice of svādhyāya is, for the Haṭha yogi, a source of emotional inspiration and meditation.

Nevertheless, in a universal context of a spirituality excluding prejudice and narrow-mindedness, the yogi can just as easily find refuge and emulation at the heart of other sources of spiritual inspiration. Thus it is that the famous nineteenth-century Indian yogi Sri Ramakrishna experienced repeated unions with the Divine triggered by sublime inspirations found as much in the reading of the Qur’an or the Bible as in the writings of his own tradition. The study required by svādhyāya also includes japa, repetition of the mantra that usually completes the traditional initiation of the cela (student) by his or her guru.

Īśvarapraṇidhāna

The last of the ten fundamental rules of Haṭha Yoga, the highly religious īśvarapraṇidhāna is not the least important. In fact, it presupposes a sincere and intense devotion, a reorientation of thought and feeling toward the Absolute, the goal of all spirituality. From the technical point of view, it consists of a state of divinely inspired mental concentration directed exclusively toward the Divine, Īśvara, the Lord who is none other than the supreme awareness of the Self. Īśvara is different from the Creator God of the Judeo-Christian tradition insofar as Īśvara is the transcendent awareness of the Self, free from ontological illusion and, consequently, of all spatiotemporal or cognitive dependency.

The yogi’s progress on the long spiritual journey that leads to a determined return to the source involves deliberately abandoning the self to the Beloved, to the Divine, and to the unknown designs of immanent Will, with the hope of one day becoming its very humble instrument. This done, the yogi places himself or herself at the heart of Bhakti Yoga (the Yoga of devotion), at the heart of Divine love.